Ezekiel 36:11

I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings.

Hope for your future

I. What is there, then, so good in our beginnings?

1. One choice enjoyment was our vivid sense of pardon. Taken out of the bonds of iniquity, our hearts danced at the very sound of the redeeming name.

2. You had then a delicious enjoyment of the good things of the covenant of grace. You did not know a tenth of what you know now, but you intensely enjoyed what you did know.

3. And, at that time, we were like the children of Israel in a third matter, namely, that we had repeated victories. You marvelled to see how the adversary was subdued beneath the, foot of your faith. Those were good times, were they not--those beginnings?

4. In those days you had great delight in prayer. When alone with Christ, it was heaven below; and in the prayer meetings, when God’s people were warm at heart, how you delighted to unite with them!

5. In those days we were full of living fruitfulness. What marvels we were going to do; ay, and we did many of them by God’s good grace!

6. Then, if we had but little strength, yet we kept the Lord’s Word. If we had but one talent, we made as much use of it, perhaps, as some do with ten.

7. Oh, how we loved the Saviour when first we discovered how He had loved us with an everlasting love!

II. Can anything be better than this? Well, it would be a very great pity if there could not be, because I am sure we, when we were young beginners, were not much to boast of; and all the joy we had was, artier all, but little compared with what is revealed in the Word of God. In what respects, then, can our future be better than that which is behind?

1. I answer very readily, faith may be stronger. At first it shoots up like the lily, very beautiful, but fragile; afterwards it is like the oak with great roots that grip the soil, and rugged branches that defy the winds.

2. God gives to His people, as they advance, much more knowledge. We learn the art of dissecting truth--taking it to pieces, and seeing the different veins of Divine thought that run through it; and then we see with delight blessing after blessing conveyed to us by the person and sacrifice of our exalted Lord.

3. Love to Christ gets to be more constant. It is a passion always, but with believers who grow in grace it comes to be a principle as well as a passion. If they are not always blazing with love, there is a good fire banked up within the soul.

4. As Christians grow in grace, prayer becomes more mighty. If the Lord builds you up into true spiritual manhood you will know how to wrestle.

5. So, I think, it is in usefulness. Growing Christians, and full-grown Christians, are more useful than beginners. Their fruit, if not quite so plentiful, is of better quality, and more mellow.

6. In fact, this one thing is clear of all believers who have grown in grace--that the work of grace in them is nearer completion. They are getting nearer heaven, and they are getting more fit for it.

III. How can we secure that it will be better with us by and by than it is now?

1. I answer, first, keep to the simplicity of your first faith. Never get an inch beyond the Cross; for, if you do, you will have to come back. That is your place till you die: you nothing, and Christ everything.

2. At the same time, practise great watchfulness. We ought to have the eyes of a lynx, and they ought never to be closed. We know not which way the next temptation will come.

3. The next advice is, grow in dependence upon God. You cannot keep yourself unless He keeps you. Remember that.

4. Determine, at the very beginning, to be thorough. Daily dread lest in anything you should omit to do your Lord’s will, or should trespass against Him. In this way your joy shall be maintained, and you shall be settled after your old estates; and God will do better unto you than at your beginnings.

5. Seek for more instruction. Try to grow in the knowledge of God, that your joy may be full. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Better on before

In some parts of the Western Highlands of Scotland the traveller’s eye is delighted by the clear and sunlit waters of the lake, running far up into the hills. But as he climbs over the slopes and catches sight of the waters of the Atlantic, bathed in the glory of the setting sun, he almost forgets the beautiful vision which previously arrested him, for the latter scene is far superior. Thus do the growths of spiritual character unfold richer conceptions of Christ’s infinite love and character. (R. Venting.)